Police grab suicidal man on I-5 overpass

Police officers likely saved the life of a suicidal man Monday night after he walked onto a sign brace fixed to an Interstate 5 overpass in Tukwila.

Just before 9 p.m., police received a report of a suicidal man poised to jump onto Interstate 5 from the Klickitat Street overpass.

Tukwila police and a state trooper responded to the bridge, as did an off-duty Seattle police officer. The trooper and Tukwila officers were able to grab the man, who had been hanging from a pole over I-5.

“He was literally hanging over I-5 when we pulled him over the guardrail,” Trooper John Pierce said following the incident, according to a State Patrol statement.

Pierce and the officers pulled the man over the guardrail.

A State Patrol spokesman noted that the incident was the second in a week during which a trooper has been involved in saving a person from a suicide attempt. There have been at least 16 suicides along the freeways in King County in the last two years.

The State Patrol urges travelers to report any suspicious activity of pedestrians along the freeway.